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THE  STATUS  OF 
THE  MILITARY  DEPARTMENT 


IN  THE 


LAND-GRANT  COLLEGES 


WASHINGTON 

GOVERNMENT  PRINTING  OFFICE 
1914 


THE  STATUS  OF 
THE  MILITARY  DEPARTMENT 


IN  THE 


LAND-GRANT  COLLEGES 


WASHINGTON 

GOVERNMENT  PRINTING  OFFICE 
1914 


07 


tlNIV.    OF 

CALIFORNIA 


THE  STATUS  OF  THE  MILITARY  DEPARTMENT  IN  THE  LAND- 
GRANT  COLLEGES.1 


By  EDWARD  ORTON,  Jr.,  Dean,  College  of  Engineering,  Ohio  State  University. 


Of  all  the  provisions  made  by  governments  or  by  private  citizens  for 
the  education  of  the  people,  in  this  or  any  other  country,  in  these 
days  or  those  of  the  past,  few,  if  any,  can  be  compared  in  importance 
and  far-reaching  effect  to  the  Morrill  Act  of  1862.  It  has  brought 
into  existence  a  group  of  institutions  without  a  parallel  in  the  field 
of  higher  education,  either  in  the  breadth  of  choice  of  their  educa- 
tional menu,  their  accessibility  to  people  of  all  classes,  or  in  the  ex- 
tent to  which  they  are  patronized. 

In  the  Morrill  Act,  as  in  all  other  documents  of  great  import,  every 
word  and  phrase  has  been  studied  and  its  various  possible  significa- 
tions discussed.  These  matters  are  still  under  a  more  or  less  spirited 
discussion,  which  must  continue  until,  sooner  or  later,  the  general 
consensus  of  opinion  crystallizes. 

There  is  one  provision  in  this  act,  however,  which  is  not  ambiguous 
in  its  meaning,  but  which  is  subject  to  wider  differences  of  interpreta- 
tion than  any  of  the  really  debatable  clauses.  I  refer  to  the  words, 
"  and  including  military  tactics."  Everybody  knows  just  what  this 
means.  There  is  nothing  permissive  or  optional  about  it.  It  means 
that  it  was  intended  by  the  framers  of  the  law  that  military  instruc- 
tion should  be  an  integral  part  of  the  training  given  by  every  land- 
grant  college. 

That  there  are  very  wide  differences  at  present  in  the  way  that  a 
military  department  is  administered  in  the  different  land-grant  col- 
leges is  unquestionable.  In  some  the  military  discipline  is  like  that 
at  West  Point,  always  in  force,  and  the  student  lives  in  barracks 
under  a  strictly  controlled  schedule.  In  others  the  drill  lasts  one 
hour  per  day,  but  continues  through  five  days  a  week  for  the  entire 
four  years  of  the  college  course.  In  most  of  the  schools  the  drill  is 
three  days  a  week  for  two  years,  in  others  two  days  a  week  for  two 
years,  and  in  others  three  days  a  week  for  one  year. 

From  this  it  appears  that,  while  an  equal  obligation  rests  upon 
all  institutions  founded  under  the  Morrill  Act  to  maintain  military 

!A  paper  read  before  a  joint  meeting  of  the  Association  of  American  Agricultural  Colleges  and  Experiment 
Stations  and  the  Land-Grant  College  Engineering  Association,  at  Washington,  D.  C.,  Nov.  14, 1913. 
23465°— 14  3 


345899 


4  STATUS  'Oji\  MILITARY    DEPARTMENT    IN    LAND-GRANT    COLLEGES. 

instruction;  .tilt-re"  are  really',  ysry,  great  differences  in  the  extent  to 
which  this  obligation  is  felt  or  recognized  in  the  different  schools. 

My  purpose  in  calling  attention  to  these  conditions  is  partly  to 
raise  an  objection  to  this  lack  of  uniformity.  I  think  that  it  is 
improper  that  schools  which  receive  the  same  bounty  should  requite 
this  bounty  in  such  very  different  measure. 

But  the  more  important  part  of  my  purpose  is  to  call  attention 
to  a  much  more  serious  matter,  viz,  the  wrong  mental  attitude  which 
most  of  these  schools  assume  toward  military  instruction,  in  the 
f ac.t  that  they  give  as  little  of  it  as  they  think  will  pass  muster.  I 
deplore  the  loss  to  the  students,  and  the  schools,  and  the  Nation  from 
this  faulty  conception  of  what  the  military  provisions  of  the  Morrill 
Act  are  capable  of  accomplishing,  if  administered  with  sympathy 
and  wisdom.  It  seems  to  me  that  many  of  us  are  not  giving  a  good 
stewardship  of  the  talent  which  has  been  put  into  our  hands. 
Especially  do  I  desire  to  convince  this  body  that  we  as  executives 
of  engineering  schools  are  failing  seriously  to  take  hold  of  and  make 
effective  use  of  one  of  the  very  best  tools  in  our  whole  educational  kit. 

The  chief  motive  for  the  insertion  of  the  military-drill  requirement 
in  the  Morrill  Act  was  probably  to  strengthen  our  feeble  military 
preparedness  by  the  creation  of  a  body  of  educated  citizen  soldiery 
which  in  time  of  war  would  become  an  asset  of  great  importance  to 
us.  It  was  evidently  inspired  by  the  serious  shortage  of  persons  fit 
to  become  officers  in  the  Civil  War,  which  was  then  in  progress,  and 
the  terrible  suffering  of  our  troops,  due  to  the  incompetence  and 
inexperience  of  their  officers. 

This  motive  is  still  the  most  important  one  which  can  be  brought 
forward  from  the  Government's  side  to  justify  the  expenditure  which 
the  military-drill  feature  of  the  Morrill  Act  specifically  occasions. 

But,  while  I  thoroughly  believe  in  this  reason  for  exacting  drill  in 
land-grant  colleges,  still,  from  the  standpoint  of  the  schools  I  con- 
sider it  of  secondary  importance  compared  to  the  intrinsic  value  of 
the  military  drill  as  an  element  in  the  education  of  any  young  college 
graduate.  It  is  for  the  benefit  of  the  schools  themselves,  rather  than 
for  the  improvement  of  our  national  military  preparedness,  that  I  am 
urging  that  the  military  drill  be  treated  with  more  seriousness  and 
consideration. 

BESPECTS  IN  WHICH  MILITARY  INSTRUCTION  IS  OF  VALUE  IN  A 

SCHOOL. 

(1 )  Disciplinary  value. — Military  drill  supplies  a  conception  of 
authority,  and  respect  for  authority,  which  nothing  else  does  or  can 
furnish.  It  is  needed  more  now  than  half  a  century  ago,  and  will  be 
needed  increasingly  as  time  goes  on."  In  your  administration  as 
deans  how  many  of  the  young  men  who  come  before  you  for  advice 


STATUS    OF    MILITARY   DEPARTMENT   IN    LAND-GRANT   COLLEGES.          5 

or  reproof  give  evidence  of  being  reared  in  a  well-ordered  and  well- 
disciplined  home?  How  many  cases  come  before  your  notice  of 
young  men  who  are  lawless  and  disobedient  at  college  because  they 
have  never  been  controlled  at  home  ?  Or  worse  still,  in  how  many 
cases,  where  discipline  b*y  the  university  is  inflicted  upon  a  young 
man  for  infraction  of  the  rules,  do  his  parents  show  their  incapacity 
for  government  by  siding  with  the  offender  and  encourage  him  in  his 
folly  by  misplaced  sympathy  and  by  appeals  for  the  waiving  of  the 
university's  regulations  in  his  behalf  ? 

With  our  colleges  full  of  young  men  of  such  undisciplined  ante- 
cedents, and  the  proportion  of  such  growing  instead  of  decreasing,  the 
need  of  a  discipline  fundamental,  vigorous  and  absolutely  impartial, 
is  apparent.  (No  greater  kindness  can  be  shown  an  undisciplined, 
spoiled  boy,  whose  mother  is  too  weak  and  whose  father  is  too  busy 
to  control  him,  than  to  put  him  under  military  control,)  where  he 
learns  to  obey  first  and  ask  why  second,  and  where  punctuality, 
self-control,  neatness,  and  absolute  truthfulness  are  the  first  requisites. 
No  military  discipline  can  ever  give  a  boy  what  he  ought  to  get  at 
home,  but  for  the  boy  who  does  not  get  discipline  at  home  the  military 
training  is  of  inestimable  worth. 

Obedience  does  not  come  from  precept  nor  from  intellectual  con- 
viction solely,  or  even  chiefly.  It  comes  from  the  knowledge  of  power 
and  authority;  and  while  intellectual  conviction  should  always  be 
used  to  its  limit  in  securing  obedience,  there  must  always  be  the 
shadow  of  the  big  stick  in  the  background,  whether  one  deals  with 
savages  or  boys  or  college  professors.  That  is  why  a  good  military 
department  in  any  college  is  invaluable.  It  is  the  one  branch  of 
college  work  where  authority  visibly  rests  upon  its  actual  source  of 
power. 

(2)  Physical  advantage. — Young  men  who  come  to  college  may  be 
divided  into  two  classes — those  who  are  in  earnest  and  those  who 
are  not.  Happily  the  first  class  greatly  predominates.  But  both 
classes  make  the  same  error,  though  from  different  reasons.  The 
dig  does  not  want  to  drill  because  it  takes  too  much  time.  He  has 
a  convenient  chance  to  get  a  laboratory  section,  or  something  else, 
and  he  does  not  want  to  quit  and  put  on  his  uniform,  just  when  an 
hour  more  would  finish  an  experiment  Or  complete  a  problem.  The 
idler,  on  the  other  hand,  finds  that  drill  interferes  with  his  watching 
or  taking  part  in  the  college  sports  or  something  else,  and  hence  he 
would  like  to  be  excused. 

An  hour  of  brisk  marching  in  the  open  air,  with  head  up  and 
shoulders  square,  and  with  every  sense  alert,  under  the  inspiring 
influence  of  mass  action,  team  work,  and  military  music  is  a  grand 
finish  for  the  day  of  a  college  student,  and  a  grand  preface  to  the 
evening  meal.  In  college  or  out,  humankind  are  prone  to  neglect 


6          STATUS   OF    MILITARY   DEPARTMENT   IN    LAND-GRANT    COLLEGES, 

the  simple  laws  of  health  and  fail  to  take  exercise.  The  drill  would 
be  worth  while  ten  times  over  if  it  did  no  other  thing  than  to  force 
students  to  exercise  regularly  in  the  open  air.  One  of  its  great 
merits  is  that  it  catches  the  very  fellow  who  would  not  get  the  exer- 
cise except  upon  compulsion.  - 

(3)  Intellectual  benefit, — As  a  puely  intellectual  exercise,  military 
drill  is  in  one  respect  the  equal  of  any  course  in  college,  viz,  power 
of  concentration.     It  keeps  a  constant  demand  upon  the  attention 
of  every  man  in  the  company  every  minute  that  it  lasts.     It  is 
memory  exercise  at  first,  but  as  soon  as  familiarity  and  practice 
bring  a  certain  degree  of  automaticity  to  the  common  movements, 
the  nature  of  the  demand  changes  and  the  strategical  phase  of  the 
subject  is  developed.     The  handling  of  troops,  even  in  a  simple  mili- 
tary ceremony,   requires  not  only  concentration  but  constructive 
ability,  and  the  moment  that  the  work  leaves  the  field  of  ceremony 
and  takes  up  real  military  maneuvering,  such  as  skirmish  drill,  out- 
post  duty,   etc.,    the   constructive   element  becomes  predominant. 
No  one,  officer  or  private,  can  acquit  himself  well  in  a  spirited, 
snappy  drill  without  giving  a  high  degree  of  concentration  to  the 
task.     The  more  advanced  the  work  becomes  the  more  broad  and 
diversified  demand  does  the  work  make  upon  the  intelligence  of  the 
student. 

It  may  be  objected  that  the  real  intellectual  labor -falls  upon  the 
officers,  indeed  upon  the  one  officer  in  command.  It  is  undoubtedly 
true  that  the  leader  does  the  most  work  and  gets  the  most  benefit, 
but  in  a  student  organization  the  procedure  differs  from  the  Army, 
in  that  every  effort  is  made  to  vary  the  leadership  and  to  give  the 
opportunity  of  leadership  to  as  large  a  number  as  possible.  The 
modern  formations  favor  this,  for  every  eighth  man  is  a  corporal  and 
responsible  for  his  seven  men,  and  every  sergeant  has  his  squad  or 
platoon,  etc. 

(4)  Development  of  character. — The  old  adage  that  "no  one  can 
properly  control  others  who  can  not  first  control  himself  "is  one  of 
these  eternal  verities  which  can  not  be  too  often  driven  into  the  minds 
of  the  young  college  man.     Any  young  engineer  looks  forward  to 
controlling  others.     In  a  sense  every  young  college  man  does,  whether 
he  is  an  engineer  or  not,  but  in  law  and  medicine  and  agriculture  the 
future  direct  control  of  a  force  of  men  does  not  loom  up  on  the  horizon 
as  it  does  to  one  who  expects  to  play  a  leading  part  in  the  railroad, 
mine,  or  factory.     But  how  shall  we  get  this  power  of  leadership? 
How  shall  we  learn  to  impose  our  wall  upon  others  and  still  keep  their 
respect  and  regard?     I  believe  in  the  laboratory  method  in  most 
things,  and  I  believe  in  it  here.     To  give  a  young  man  power  to  con- 
trol others,  let  him  first  learn  how  to  obey  and  to  take  orders  from 
others.     Next,  give  him  a  minor  responsibility  to  direct  others  and 


STATUS    OF    MILITARY    DEPARTMENT   IN    LAND-GRANT    COLLEGES.          7 

coach  him  on  his  faults  when  he  begins.  Give  him  increasing  chances 
to  command  as  fast  as  he  develops  ability  to  use  power. 

The  military  organization  in  a  large  college  offers  an  ideal  method 
of  giving  just  exactly  this  opportunity.  In  a  college  regiment  the 
size  of  the  companies  is  usually  cut  down  materially,  and  the  number 
of  officers  can  be  increased  considerably  over  the  statutory  propor- 
tion without  diminishing  the  prestige  of  the  officers'  position  to  any 
degree.  In  this  way  large  numbers  of  the  men  get  the  experience  of 
commanding  troops — in  fact,  every  one  who  develops  the  least  facility 
or  promise  in  that  direction.  A  young  man  who  can  not  develop 
leadership  in  a  military  organization  is  a  young  man  whose  attributes 
for  an  engineer  need  investigation. 

Another  factor  in  leadership  is  the  ability  to  read  character.  No 
better  place  exists  in  the  world  to  practice  this  art  than  in  the  selec- 
tion of  men  for  office.  Every  company  captain  must  study  his  men, 
and  in  making  his  selections  for  promotion,,  under  the  watchful  care 
of  his  superior  officer,  he  himself  takes  a  most  important  lesson. 

Another  factor  in  character  building  is  the  high  standard  of  per- 
sonal honor  which  must  go  with  any  effective  military  control.  A 
soldier  is  taught  a  very  simple  but  a  very  severe  code  of  behavior. 
He  must  tell  the  truth  and  hate  a  lie.  He  must  enforce  respect  for 
his  own  rights  and  must  show  equal  respect  for  the  rights  of  others. 
As  he  wears  the  uniform  of  his  organization  he  must  be  a  gentleman 
first,  last,  and  all  the  time,  or  he  will  disgrace  his  friends  as  well  as 
himself.  He  must  love  his  country  and  serve  it  with  a  single  mind, 
even  to  death.  Not  a  bad  platform  for  a  young  college  man  to  learn, 
is  it? 

(5)  Technical  training  of  engineering  value. — Every  intelligent  man 
knows  that  the  losses  in  the  wars  of  the  past  have  been  chiefly  caused 
by  disease — that  those  actually  killed  or  incapacitated  by  wounds  are 
only  a  small  percentage  of  the  whole.  Every  one  knows,  or  should 
know,  that  the  life  of  an  army  officer  is  very  largely  spent  in  taking 
care  of  the  physique,  strength,  and  health  of  his  men.  For  a  few 
moments  or  a  few  hours  of  his  life  he  may  be  in  battle,  where  a  bullet, 
or  a  shell,  or  a  poisoned  arrow  may  rudely  interrupt  his  career,  but 
more  than  99  per  cent  of  his  life  is  spent  in  getting  ready  and  keeping 
ready  for  this  crucial  moment.  His  task  is  to  live  right,  to  conserve 
and  develop  his  own  physical  powers  in  order  to  set  a  good  example, 
and  to  be  able  to  see  that  his  men  do  the  same.  It  involves  knowl- 
edge of  the  elements  of  dietetics,  the  use  of  water  for  drinking,  the 
care  of  one's  own  person,  keeping  clean,  keeping  a  whole  skin,  and 
treating  wounds  and  minor  injuries.  It  involves  the  much  more 
difficult  task  of  seeing  that  others  who  do  not  know  or  comprehend 
the  danger  or  who  lack  the  self-control  to  suffer  privation  are  not 
allowed  to  take  direct  sanitary  risks. 


8  STATUS   OF    MILITARY   DEPARTMENT   IN    LAND-GRANT    COLLEGES. 

Every  manufacturing  or  engineering  enterprise  is  like  an  army  in 
the  fact  that  its  effectiveness  is  dependent  on  the  physical  effective- 
ness of  its  men.  And  how  often  on  the  frontiers  in  industry,  as  on 
the  frontiers  in  war,  does  the  success  of  an  enterprise  depend  on  the 
ability  of  the  engineer  or  superintendent  to  make  his  men  live  as  they 
should.  How  many  of  our  railroad  camps,  drainage  camps,  highway 
camps,  and  factories  are  decimated  by  typhoid,  cholera,  diphtheria, 
yellow  fever,  tuberculosis,  syphilis,  etc.,  while  work  is  delayed  or 
stopped,  and  tune,  money,  and  life  are  lost  because  the  engineer  in 
charge  did  not  know  that  it  was  his  business  to  protect  his  men  from 
sickness  as  well  as  from  accident  ? 

There  is  no  other  school  so  effective  in  such  matters  as  a  well- 
managed  camp,  where  every  detail  of  the  sanitation  is  carefully 
planned  and  executed  and  where  the  art  of  feeding,  housing,  policing, 
and  keeping  a  body  of  men  well  in  spite  of  unusual  conditions  of  life 
is  taught  by  practice  as  well  as  precept.  Every  engineer  ought  to 
have  the  advantage  of  such  an  experience  as  a  fundamental  part  of 
his  education. 

But  besides  sanitation  and  care  of  men,  military  science  has  many 
other  useful  lessons.  Military  procedure  is  really  engineering.  Every 
military  enterprise,  from  the  transportation  of  supplies,  the  bridging 
of  streams,  the  mapping  of  the  country,  the  making  of  roads,  the 
making  of  guns  and  weapons,  the  construction  of  forts  and  arma- 
ments, the  science  of  ballistics,  and  every  other  unenumerated  branch 
of  the  subject  is  nothing  more  than  the  application  of  the  methods  of 
engineering  to  the  art  of  warfare.  Engineering  is,  therefore,  very 
properly  the  backbone  in  the  instruction  given  in  every  military 
school  in  the  world. 

The  engineering  schools  ought  to  try  to  avail  themselves  of  that 
part  of  military  engineering  experience  which  is  applicable  to  the 
peaceful  arts  of  commerce  and  manufacture.  No  right-minded  man 
will  deny  to  the  soldier  the  credit  for  what  he  has  done  to  make  the 
world  more  civilized,  more  orderly,  more  healthful,  more  habitable. 
Shall  we  not  fake  from  his  experience  that  part  which  we  need  in  our 
daily  affairs  ? 

WAYS  IN  WHICH  THE  SCHOOL  CAN  MAKE  THE   MILITARY  WORK 

EFFECTIVE. 

If  there  is  anything  in  these  ideas  as  to  the  ways  in  which  a  mili- 
tary department  can  be  of  service  to  a  school,  or  even  in  any  one 
of  them,  then  it  would  seem  that  it  would  be  worth  while  to  seri- 
ously examine  ourselves  and  see  if  we  are  doing  what  we  can  and 
what  we  ought  to  make  use  of  this  force. 

I  do  not  wish  to  minimize  the  work  that  has  been  accomplished 
and  is  being  accomplished  by  the  military  departments  of  the  land- 


STATUS    OF    MILITARY   DEPARTMENT  IN    LAND-GRANT    COLLEGES.          9 

grant  colleges  under  existing  conditions.  To  my  mind  they  deserve, 
in  most  places,  the  very  highest  praise  for  doing  so  well  with  so  much 
indifference  to  overcome  and  often  in  the  face  of  veiled  hostility. 
The  colleges  can  certainly  do  a  good  deal  to  make  the  military  work 
more  successful. 

(1)  Backing  up  discipline. — The  college  owes  no  more  important 
duty  to  the  military  department  than  to  strongly  support  the  dis- 
cipline which  the  latter  seeks  to  enforce.     The  drill  may  be  short 
and  infrequent,  but  while  it  lasts  it  must  be  rigidly  administered  if 
it  is    to    do  any  good.     Too  often  the  faculty  has  been  guilty  of 
actually  subverting  discipline  by  winking  at  infractions  of  the  rules, 
graduating  men  in  spite  of  shortage  of  military  credits,   allowing 
students  to  cut  drill  in  favor  of  some  technical  duty,  etc. 

(2)  Academic  credit. — Another  thing  is  to  acknowledge  the  edu- 
cational value  of  military  training  as  the  equal  of  any  other  sub- 
ject in  academic  weighting.     If  a  subject  is  put  upon  a  student's 
class  card  as  a  requirement,  with  no  other  credit  than  a  penalty 
for  failure  to  perform  it,  that  subject  is  certain  to  be  viewed  by  the 
student  as  an  exaction  to  be  gotten  through,  but  by  no  means  to  be 
taken  seriously.     It  is  discounted  in  advance.     If  the  college  treats 
the  military  department  with  respect  and  consideration,  the  student 
will  in  time  adopt  the  same  attitude,  but  not  otherwise. 

(3)  Military  courtesy. — Another  way  to  dignify  the  military  work 
is  for  the  faculty  to  observe  generally  and  punctiliously  the  little 
formalities  and  courtesies  which  a  military  organization  makes  pos- 
sible.    If  the  faculty  recognizes  salutes  and  gives  them  to  military 
officers,  the  value  of  the  office  is  enhanced  and  discipline  is  strength- 
ened.    The  whole  tone  of  a  school  and  the  relations  of  professors 
and  students  in  class  and  out  can  be  greatly  improved  by  the  faculty 
taking  the  slight  trouble  to  maintain  in  their  work  and  contact  with 
students  a  little  of  the  formal  courtesy  which  is  required  by  the 
military  department  in  its  own  internal  relations  as  a  matter  of 
course. 

(4)  Time  allowance. — Another  thing  which  can  be  done  to  help 
the  military  work  along  is  to  grant  sufficient  time  to  the  subject,  so 
that  the  course  can  be  made  to  include  some  of  its  interesting  phases 
and  not  be  confined  to  a  mere  repetition  of  the  manual  of  arms  and< 
company  formation.     Military  science,  like  any  other*  college  work, 
should  be  so  taught  that  the  student  can  see  his  own  progress,  and 
also  see  that  there  is  much  more  to  know  than  he  will  get  a  chance 
to  learn.   /Any  active-minded  group  of  college  boys  can  learn  the 
ordinary  drill  in  a  very  short  time  if  they  have  the  faintest  interest 
in  it.     The  fact  that  they  sometimes  accomplish  so  little  is  because 
they  have  so  little  interest  in  it,  and  receive  no  intimation  from  the 
faculty  that  they  are  expected  to  feel  otherwise.N  If  the  instruction 


10        STATUS    OF    MILITARY    DEPARTMENT   IN    LAND-GRANT    COLLEGES. 

is  progressive,  so  that  a  second-year  man  was  not  doing  the  same  as 
the  first-year  man,  and  the  third-year  man  was  doing  something  still 
more  advanced,  the  student's  interest  is  soon  enlisted.  When  there 
is  so  much  that  should  be  taught,  it  is  a  pity  that  the  A  B  C  of  it 
should  occupy  all  the  time. 

(5)  Adequate  instructional  force. — Another  and  very  important  thing 
which  the  college  can  do  is  to  provide  adequate  teaching  force.  No 
college  in  the  land  would  expect  one  professor  of  mathematics  to 
teach  a  thousand  students,  nor  would  it  think  that  it  had  done 
justice  to  its  students  if  it  had  manned  the  mathematics  department 
with  one  professor  and  an  ever-expanding  and  ever -changing  corps 
of  junior  and  senior  student  assistants  to  handle  the  freshmen  and 
sophomores.  Without  doubt,  mathematics  could  be  so  taught,  but 
any  school  that  attempted  it  would  lose  caste.  Yet  that  is  exactly 
what  all  of  the  colleges  are  doing  with  their  military  departments. 
One  Army  officer  seems,  in  the  mind  of  the  colleges,  to  be  able  to 
leaven  the  whole  mass  of  students  with  military  knowledge,  regard- 
less of  whether  there  be  a  company,  or  a  regiment,  or  a  brigade  to 
be  handled. 

I  am  not  advocating  the  employment  of  Army  officers  to  do  away 
with  or  take  the  place  of  the  student  officers.  The  opportunity  to 
command  and  to  handle  troops  is  a  most  important  part  of  the 
military  training  of  the  student;  but  the  cadet  officer,  as  well  as  the 
troops,  should  be  under  the  watchful  care  and  daily  coaching  of  a 
competent  teacher.  The  colleges  ought  to  take  the  leadership  in 
recognizing  this  situation.  The  rule  should  be  that  no  officer  should 
ever  be  required  to  take  charge  of  more  than  400  men,  and  that  where 
more  than  400  are  enrolled  a  second  officer  should  be  detailed,  and 
a  third  when  the  number  exceeds  800,  and  so  on.  It  might  be  argued 
that  with  but  one  hour  a  day  for  drill  the  work  of  these  men  would 
be  light.  This  would  not  be  so  if  they  took  their  duties  seriously 
and  really  gave  themselves  to  the  task  of  building  up  their  work. 
Target  practice,  tactic  classes,  art  of  war,  and  advanced  instruction 
would  keep  them  busy.  It  may  be  objected  that  the  number  of 
officers  available  under  the  law  of  1893,  under  which  Army  officers 
are  now  detailed,  does  not  permit  doubling  the  detail  of  officers  upon 
full  pa}7  and  allowances  at  one  school,  except  by  depriving  some 
other  school  of  any  officer  at  all.  This,  unfortunately,  is  the  situa- 
tion at  present,  but  is  a  matter  that  can  be  remedied.  The  law  has 
been  amended  twice  to  increase  the  number  of  officers  available  and 
can  be  amended  again  to  provide  the  number  that  modern  conditions 
demand. 

Meanwhile,  there  is  nothing  whatever  in  the  Morrill  Act  which 
requires  that  the  land-grant  colleges  shall  depend  only  upon  Army 
officers  to  give  the  instruction  in  military  tactics  which  the  law 


STATUS    OF    MILITARY    DEPARTMENT   IN    LAND-GRANT    COLLEGES.       11 

prescribes.  They  may,  if  they  so  desire,  go  out  and  secure  as  mili- 
tary instructors  anyone  whom  they  can  find  who  knows  the  subject, 
whether  retired  Army  officer,  militia  officer,  or  civilian..  Since  the 
War  Department  does  furnish  one  officer  free  of  charge  to  the  col- 
lege, the  temptation  is  Very  natural  to  assume  that  the  Government's 
duty  is  to  supply  more  when  needed,  and  therefore  to  limit  the 
training  to  what  the  one  officer  is  capable  of  doing  until  the  Gov- 
ernment sends  more.  But  I  contend  that  this  is  radically  wrong  in 
principle  and  in  practice,  and  that  there  is  no  reason  why  the  college 
should  feel  absolved  from  further  responsibility  in  the  matter  of 
providing  more  instruction  when  needed.  If  the  War  Department 
withdrew  all  officers,  the  schools  would  still  have  to  provide  military 
instruction  just  the  same. 

THE    NEEDS    OF    THE    COUNTRY    AND    THE    COLLEGES    ABE 

IDENTICAL. 

My  next  thesis  is  that  it  is  just  as  important,  or  more  so,  to  the 
country  at  large  and  the  War  Department  in  particular,  that  the 
military  work  of  our  land-grant  colleges  be  strengthened  as  it  is  to 
the  colleges  themselves.  The  officials  of  the  War  Department  look 
at  the  provisions  of  the  Morrill  Act  and  the  acts  of  1890  and  1908  as 
being  intended  to  remedy  the  terrible  shortage  of  officers  felt  in  the 
Civil  War  and  later  in  the  Spanish  War.  In  view  of  the  very  small 
number  of  graduates  of  land-grant  schools  who  go  into  the  Army 
or  even  into  the  militia,  and  in  view  of  the  inability  of  the  War 
Department  to  keep  track  of  these  graduates  or  to  have  any  kind 
of  hold  upon  them  in  event  of  war,  these  officials  can  not  see  where 
all  the  millions  that  have  been  poured  into  these  schools  have  thus 
far  done  anything  in  particular  to  improve  the  military  prepared- 
ness of  the  country.  They  partly  overlook  the  very  wide  dissemi- 
nation over  the  country  of  educated  men  who  have  had  some  mili- 
tary knowledge  and  experience  and  who  would  flock  to  the  colors 
in  time  of  need;  but  their  dissatisfaction  and  unwillingness  to  place 
their  trust  on  such  an  intangible  military  asset  is  entirely  natural. 
It  simply  means,  in  event  of  a  sudden  expansion  of  the  Army  in 
war  time,  that  we  shall  have  a  recurrence  of  the  conditions  of  the 
Civil  War,  except  that  we  now  have  a  populace  somewhat  better 
trained  in  military  science  from  which  to  select. 

With  the  War  Department  looking  at  our  work  in  this  light,  we 
can  not  expect  the  Government  to  give  us  more  help  unless  we  can 
show  very  clearly  that  our  inefficiency  from  the  military  standpoint 
is  not  wholly  our  own  fault,  and  that  we  desire  to  rectify  the  situa- 
tion, and  that  we  can  not  do  so  without  further  assistance  and 
cooperation. 


12        STATUS    OF    MILITARY   DEPARTMENT   IN    LAND-GRANT    COLLEGES. 

In  order  to  prove  this,  it  will  be  necessary  to  discuss  briefly  the 
military  preparedness  of  the  United  States. 

Size  of  the  Army. — The  present  status  of  the  Army  is  not  satisfac- 
tory to  those  who  are  in  it,  or  those  who  are  out  of  it,  so  far  as  the  lat- 
ter have  knowledge  of  the  facts.  It  is  very  small,  considering  the 
population,  extent,  and  exposure  of  the  country.  It  is,  we  hope, 
very  efficient  for  its  size,  and  we  believe  that  it  would  give  a  very 
excellent  account  of  itself,  as  long  as  it  lasted,  in  a  serious  war.  Its 
weak  spot  is  that  it  has  no  efficient  reserve,  which  could  be  mobilized 
in  time  of  trouble. 

To  create  a  reserve,  two  things  are  necessary — competent  officers 
and  willing  men.  The  officers  must  be  competent  as  well  as  willing, 
for  an  officer  can  not  be  made  in  a  day,  no  matter  how  much  good  will 
he  brings  to  the  task.  In  short,  a  competent  officer  is  a  highly 
trained  professional  man,  whose  education  and  experience  must  cover 
five  years  at  least.  With  competent  officers,  willing  men  can  soon 
be  made  into  an  effective  military  asset.  The  problem  of  officering 
the  reserve  is  the  real  problem,  and  the  one  in  which  the  schools  can 
assist  in  the  solution. 

The  militia  reserve. — To  supply  a  reserve,  two  plans  have  been  con- 
sidered. The  first  one  is  to  nationalize  the  State  militia  under  the  Dick 
Law.  This  has  been  a  good  measure,  and  is  doing  a  good  deal  that 
it  was  hoped  it  would  do.  It  has  greatly  improved  the  efficiency  of 
the  rank  and  file  of  the  militia.  It  has  trained  their  officers  somewhat . 
It  has  welded  them  more  closely  into  a  really  national  body,  but  it 
has  not  increased  the  strength  of  the  militia  force,  nor  has  it  removed 
its  one  greatest  source  of  weakness — the  elected  officer.  The  highest 
grade  of  military  discipline  can  never  be  developed  where  the  officers 
hold  office  by  the  suffrage  of  the  rank  and  file.  The  militia,  there- 
fore, does  not  constitute  an  efficient  reserve,  either  in  numbers  or 
in  quality,  and  it  certainly  could  not  be  depended  upon  to  supply 
many  extra  officers  for  the  speedy  recruiting  of  a  still  larger  volunteer 
force. 

The  veteran  reserve. — A  second  plan  for  recruiting  a  reserve  has 
been  to  keep  in  touch  with  all  discharged  soldiers  of  the  Army,  so 
that  they  could  be  quickly  called  together  in  time  of  need.  No  money 
is  now  available  for  this  purpose,  and  hence  the  men  have  no  suffi- 
cient inducement  to  keep  the  War  Department  advised  of  their  where- 
abouts, and  do  not  do  so.  Until  Congress  passes  legislation  for  a 
paid  reserve,  we  shall  continue  to  make  little  or  no  headway  in  this 
important  phase  of  our  national  defense.  The  discharged  soldiers  are 
not  of  proper  caliber  for  commissioned  officers  in  any  case,  and  hence 
do  not  touch  the  problem  we  are  considering. 

West  Point  and  the  private  military  schools. — West  Point  for  a  long 
time  has  not  been  able  to  fill  the  ordinary  vacancies  of  our  regular 


STATUS    OF    MILITARY    DEPARTMENT   IN    LAND-GRANT   COLLEGES.        13 

standing  Army.  Every  year  a  considerable  number  of  vacancies  are 
filled  with  fairly  efficient  graduates  of  private  military  schools,  a  very 
few  graduates  from  land-grant  colleges,  and  some  from  civil  life  with 
a  minimum  of  fitness  or  efficiency.  A  few  officers  are  also  secured 
from  the  rank  and  file  of  the  Army,  after  passing  rigid  examinations. 
All  combined,  these  sources  are  barely  able  to  supply  the  needs  of  our 
small  standing  Army,  and  would,  therefore,  not  be  able  to  make  much 
of  a  showing  in  providing  officers  for  a  reserve  or  a  volunteer  army. 

The  McKellar  proposition. — There  is  now  pending  before  Congress 
a  bill  (H.  R.  8661)  to  establish  and  maintain  military  training  schools 
in  the  several  States  and  the  District  of  Columbia.  These  schools 
must  have  not  less  than  300  students  per  annum.  They  will  be  given 
a  Federal  appropriation  of  $80,000  per  annum  and  a  State  appropria- 
tion of  $40,000.  The  total  Federal  appropriation  contemplated  is 
$3,920,000  per  annum.  To  teach  military  science  in  these  49  schools 
on  a  plane  of  efficiency  comparable  with  West  Point,  or  even  the  better 
grade  of  private  military  schools,  would  require  from  three  to  six 
Army  officers  per  school,  exclusive  of  the  instructors  for  civil  subjects. 
This  would  require  from  150  to  200  officers  at  the  least,  which  would 
add  $500,000  to  the  cost  of  the  plan.  The  Secretary  of  War  has 
refused  to  approve  this  bill  and  has  urged  that  such  a  sum  of  money 

should  rather  be  used  to  establish  a  paid  reserve. 

******* 

The  land-grant  colleges. — The  Government  is  paying  out  per  annum, 
under  the  act  of  1890  and  the  Nelson  amendment  of  1908,  the  sum  of 
$2,400,000,  and  the  land-grant  colleges  are  also  receiving  many  mil- 
lions more  from  the  fruits  of  the  original  Morrill  Act,  which  sums  are 
not  now  a  tax  upon  the  Government's  resources.  This  great  sum  of 
money  goes  to  a  large  group  of  land-grant  colleges  which  are  required 
to  teach  military  science  as  a  condition  of  their  existence.  They  are 
doing  so  in  such  a  perfunctory  and  spiritless  way  that  the  War 
Department  can  see  little  practical  return,  so  far  as  military  prepar- 
edness is  concerned.  The  Secretary  of  War,  in  a  recent  report  to  a 
congressional  committee,  says: 

/In  this  connection  it  may  not  be  improper  to  invite  your  attention  to  the  fact  that 
there  is  now  and  has  been  for  many  years  in  each  of  the  several  States  an  agricultural 
and  mechanical  college  aided  by  the  Federal  Government,  where  the  law  requires 
that  military  education  be  given  with  a  view  to  training  young  men  to  act  as  subal- 
terns of  volunteers.  These  colleges  were  created  by  the  Morrill  Act  of  1862  and  were 
further  endowed  and  supported  by  the  second  Morrill,  the  Nelson,  and  subsequent 
acts.  By  these  acts  Congress  sought  to  prevent  in  the  future  the  serious  shortage  of 
the  Civil  War  in  officers  and  provided  liberally  in  funds  for  this  purpose,  and  yet, 
in  spite  of  the  earnest  endeavors  of  the  War  Department,  extending  over  a  period  of 
years,  the  purpose  of  Congress  has  been  largely  defeated,  while  at  the  same  time  its 
appropriations  have  been  used.  This  is  due  to  the  failure  of  the  acts  to  be  specific 
in  stating  what  shall  be  done  and  the  failure  to  provide  a  penalty  for  the  institutions 
not  carrying  out  the  purpose  of  the  acts.  ^ 


14        STATUS    OF    MILITARY    DEPARTMENT    IN    LAND-GRANT   COLLEGES. 
THE  LOGIC  OF  THE  SITUATION. 

Out  of  all  this,  two  facts  stand  out  clearly.  The  first  is  that  it  is 
the  obvious  duty  of  the  Government,  instead  of  embarking  upon  new 
and  expensive  experiments,  like  the  McKellar  bill,  to  take  hold  of  its 
present  machinery  and  make  it  go,  and  the  second  is  that  it  is  ob- 
viously the  duty  of  the  land-grant  colleges  to  wake  up  to  this  part 
of  their  obligation  to  the  Government,  and,  besides  removing  all 
obstacles  of  their  own  making  which  stand  in  the  way,  to  set  them- 
selves seriously  to  make  some  actual  military  output  of  a  quality 
which  the  Government  can  recognize  and  use. 

Neither  the  Government  nor  the  colleges  operating  separately 
or  alone  can  succeed  in  this  matter.  It  is  a  matter  for  cooperation. 
We  have  the  organization  for  doing  what  is  needed,  already.  No  new 
one  is  needed.  With  a  few  simple  changes,  the  whole  system  can  be 
made  to  work  successfully  and  economically  to  the  great  saving  of  the 
Government  in  its  quest  for  more  officers,  and  to  the  much  greater 
efficiency  of  the  colleges. 

Here  are  the  things  which  ought  to  be  done: 

First.  Pass  an  act  defining  a  reasonable  minimum  of  military 
instruction  which  every  land-grant  college  would  have  to  maintain, 
said  minimum  to  include : 

(a)  Not  less  than  two  years  of  military  drill  for  all  students  except 
those  exempted  for  cause. 

(6)  Not  less  than  three  separate  periods  per  week  under  military 
control  with  not  less  than  one  hour  per  period. 

(c)  The  discipline  during  military  drill  periods  to  be  strict,  with 
insubordination  punishable  by  suspension  from  college. 

(d)  The  instruction  to  comprise  drill  in  manual  of  arms,  squad,  com- 
pany, battalion,  and  regimental  drills,  military  ceremonies,  target 
practice,  skirmish  drill,  outpost  duty,  and  not  less  than  one  week  of 
camp  per  year,  and  classroom  instruction  in  tactics  and  in  the  care 
of  men  and  sanitation  of  camps  and  the  military  needs  and  policies 
of  the  country. 

Second.  Pass  an  act  requiring  the  frequent  examination  of  the 
efficiency  of  this  work  by  the  War  Department,  with  power  not  only 
to  withdraw  their  officers  from  the  school  failing  to  maintain  proper 
standards,  but  also  to  enjoin  further  payments  under  the  act  of  1890 
and  the  Nelson  amendment  until  the  case  of  the  college  in  question 
had  been  brought  for  adjudication  before  some  authority  designated 
by  the  President. 

Third.  Amend  the  act  of  1893  which  limits  the  number  of  Army 
officers  who  may  be  detailed  to  educational  institutions  to  100,  so  as 
to  make  it  possible  to  detail  one  active  or  retired  officer  under  full 
pay  and  allowances  for  each  400  students  under  military  discipline. 


STATUS    OF    MILITARY    DEPARTMENT    IN    LAND-GRANT    COLLEGES.       15 

Fourth.  Pass  an  act  requiring  all  land-grant  schools  to  which  two 
or  more  officers  are  detailed  to  provide  a  four-year  course  in  military 
engineering,  said  courses  to  include,  beside  the  fundamentals  of  a 
good  engineering  education,  four  years  of  military  drill  and  instruc- 
tion in  such  courses  in  advanced  military  subjects  as  the  Secretary 
of  War  may  prescribe. 

Fifth.  Pass  an  act  permitting  the  Secretary  of  War  to  appoint  all 
graduates  of  such  military  engineering  courses  as  second  lieutenants 
in  the  Army  for  a  period  of  one  year  following  their  graduation,  with 
full  pay  and  allowances,  at  the  end  of  which  time  their  appointment 
may  become  permanent,  if  vacancies  exist,  or  they  may  go  into  civil 
life,  retaining  their  commissions  as  officers  of  the  reserve. 

Sixth.  Encourage  the  respective  States  to  pass  laws  connecting 
cadet  regiments  in  the  land-grant  schools  with  the  National  Guard  of 
those  States,  in  the  same  general  relation  that  the  United  States 
Military  Academy  bears  to  the  United  States  Army,  to  the  end  that 
the  military  equipment  now  furnished  to  the  National  Guard  by  the 
War  Department  may  be  available  to  the  cadet  regiments  as  well, 
and  that  the  officers  now  detailed  in  the  several  States  to  inspect  and 
instruct  the  militia  may  be  available  for  similar  purposes  for  the 
cadet  regiments,  and  also  to  the  end  that  the  students  who  do  not 
graduate  in  the  proposed  military  engineering  course  but  who  take 
an  interest  in  military  affairs  may  be  more  readily  absorbed  into  and 
become  a  part  of  the  militia  of  the  States  upon  leaving  college. 

This  sixth  item  is  really  of  very  great  importance,  for  the  reason 
that  the  Army  officers  now  detailed  to  the  militia  could,  without  any 
additional  expense  to  the  War  Department,  do  a  large  part  of  the 
work  proposed  in  the  other  parts  of  this  scheme,  and  because  the 
Artillery,  Cavalry,  Signal  Corps,  hospital  and  camp  equipment  now 
in  the  State  arsenals  could  be  made  vastly  more  efficient  and  useful 
than  it  now  is  without  decreasing  its  value  for  the  present  purposes  in 
any  way.  In  short,  the  War  Department  has  now  in  the  various 
States  officers  and  equipment  enough  to  carry  out  the  major  part  of 
the  above  plan  without  additional  cost. 

CONCLUSION. 

The  duty  of  the  land-grant  college  engineering  organization  seems 
to  me  perfectly  clear.  It  can  not  by  its  own  legislation  bring  any  of 
these  things  to  pass.  It  can  appoint  a  committee  on  military  educa- 
tion to  study  the  whole  subject  and  to  find  out  how  far  their  respec- 
tive land-grant  schools  would  care  to  cooperate  toward  the  attain- 
ment of  these  ends,  and  after  conference  with  the  War  Department 
to  prepare  legislation  for  submission  to  Congress  and  to  State  legisla- 
tures. 


16        STATUS   OF    MILITARY   DEPARTMENT   IN    LAND-GRANT    COLLEGES* 

The  present  is  the  psychological  moment  for  this  organization  to 
act.  The  War  Department  is  considering  various  plans  to  get  more 
officers  for  a  reserve  and  for  active  duty.  Thus  far  none  of  them 
have  been  very  productive.  Congress  is  considering  new  and  ex- 
pensive legislation  to  create  new  military  schools,  duplicating  what 
we  already  have.  If  we  step  forward  now  and  show  both  the  War 
Department  and  Congress  where  they  can  save  money  and  gain  then* 
ends  more  efficiently,  and  at  the  same  time  add  greatly  to  the  effec- 
tiveness of  our  own  colleges,  we  shall  have  most  richly  justified  our 
existence  as  an  organization. 

o 


14  DAY  USE 

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This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 
on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 
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17Nov'5£Ji 

REC'D  U> 

KOV  12  1859 

LD  21A-50rn-4,'59                                    T   .  General  Library 
(Al724slO)476B                               UnivenfcjxrfCalifornia 

